TELEGRAM TO L. D. TROTSKY[2]

Written:Written on March 7, 1920Published:First published in 1942 inLenin Miscellany XXXIV.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      page353b.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Ifgrain and timber procurement has risen, special efforts
must be devoted to barges and preparations for floating,
especially barges for oil, then to building houses for the
Chelyabinsk and other coal workers. Cannot the Siberian
prisoners of war and officers be moved to the Urals and
set to work on coal and timber?

Toexpedite replies from the centre, obtain direct lines
through the military department.

Krestinskyhas replied to you. I repeat in brief. The
Ishim remains in Tyumen Gubernia. You can keep
Brunovsky. About meat, an order to organise salting centres has
been given.

Regardingregional centres, it is necessary to tread
warily and think it over carefully, so as to avoid regionalism.

Iftroop formation in Siberia has been overdone you
should check yourself what real measures are being taken
to combat this, summoning to the direct line anyone you
require.

Smirnovmust be taken off diplomatic, frontier and
military affairs and returned to peace-time work.

[1]Transmittedby direct line.—Ed.

[2]Writtenin reply to Trotsky’s telegram from Ekaterinburg dated
March 5, 1920, in which he reported a considerable increase in
food procurements in districts of the Urals and Siberia, complained
that the central departments did not even reply to inquiries from
the Siberian and Urals organisations, and asserted that only the
establishment of regional centres with wide powers could put the
work on a proper footing. On the text of the telegram Lenin wrote
his remarks about the decision on Ishim Uyezd and the request
that Brunovsky be kept for food work, and also about meat
procurement in Siberia: =

“1) Remains in Tyumen Gubernia.

“2)Noobjection to Brunovsky (for the Food Commissariat).

“3)TheFood Commissariat has issued an order to organise
salting centres.” (Collected Works, Fifth Ed., Vol. 51, p. 413.)